Weisman: MS "Destroyed" FASA Dev Culture

FASA Interactive founder Jordan Weisman says "When Microsoft bought FASA
Interactive and incorporated it into Microsoft... the two reasons they bought us
was, one, they wanted the catalogue of intellectual properties and, two, they
felt that we had developed a really good development culture. And the reality is
that, pretty much from the day we moved to Redmond, that development culture was
destroyed," according to a new report on
GamesIndustry.biz. FASA was acquired in 1999 and closed in
2007, and Weisman says: "I don't think the studio ever really had a chance.
It was destroyed right in the beginning." He also describes his efforts at
warning MS against destroying Bungie in the same manner, saying, "We were much
better able to defend Bungie's culture than we were FASA's culture." Looking
forward he repeats his eagerness to work with Piranha Games on the
recently revealed MechWarrior revival and just yesterday it was
announced his new company Smith & Tinker has raised $29 million USD for
development of Pokemon-style games.